


Bodies

by nocturneworld6



Category: Original Work
Genre: Body Horror, College, Cults, Decapitation, Established Relationship, F/M, Horror, Indian Character, Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, Lovecraftian Monster(s), Mystery, Power Dynamics, Psychological Horror, Rain, Set in India, Whodunnit, influence, murders, power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:34:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25444018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nocturneworld6/pseuds/nocturneworld6
Summary: In the year 1986, a girl experiences a harrowing experiences with something beyond her plane of living. While bodies drop dead around her, she seeks solace in the memories of the boy she loved once.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Kudos: 6





	Bodies

In the silence of the night, she could hear her heart pounding with fury as she held her breath, knowing the footsteps still resounded outside. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end. This wasn’t how she would die.

The bleak room housed three others who had taken shelter from his attacks. She leaned back, her ripped jeans wet with rain and blood, and another slimy black substance she couldn’t identify. The floor was ice cold to sit on, but there were windows in the room, and it was right outside, waiting for them. There was no way she would just allow it to look at their pitiful faces. It would revel in their deplorable condition.

Everybody else held their breaths as well, the stillness only being amplified by the cricket song outside. And the footsteps, soft, slow, but there. An existential dread cast a shadow in their souls, knowing if he heard them, they would simply cease to exist.

One of the guys had a cast on his arm. He was from the football team, and had been unable to play for this game season because of his injury. He had been the loudest of the bunch, screaming, shouting, claiming that it was not fair for him. The other was the quiet girl, the one she didn’t even recognize until about two weeks before this incident. Her eyes darted everywhere across the room, filling her with an unknown, primal fear, as though the one outside could simply leak into the room, like smoke. The last of them was basketball player. He was clutching his knees to his chest, rocking his body as he chanted to himself. _This is not real. This is not real._

She, in her paranoid state, longed to fill the emptiness with the forgotten memories. She forced herself to dissociate herself from her horrid reality, and closed her eyes shut. She remembered flowers in full bloom, a boy sitting on the edge of her bench, the world coming to a stand still as he asked her, “What is your name?”

“Nitya,” she had muttered, looking at the stars, not caring about continuing the conversation.

“Do you know what time is it?” he asked, turning towards her.

“How about you mind your own business?” she said, not bothering to get up. She loved the bench, the view from here was amazing. She’d come here before, gazing at the black expanse of space, identifying star systems and constellations. She had a deep relationship with the stars. Her family practically bonded over them. Her father, in particular. She’d been missing him since the past couple of days, and had started to come to observe in silence. Up until this smartass decided to disrupt her calm.

“Way to be harsh,” he said, his baritone booming around them. She turned towards him, placing a finger on her lips. “Be quiet.”

“Well, I would be if you would just tell me why you sneak out at unearthly hours to sit outside the hostel.” This guy was persistent. She liked being alone, and this was the first time she had seen someone sit beside her on the bench. The hostel lights would be turned off by 11 p.m., but she managed to jump out of the window to enjoy the silence. Now only if the guy would get the hint and leave her alone.

“As I said, mind your own business.” She leaned over her elbows, breathing in deeply-

“There are wolves hanging around,” he said, interrupting her peace. She groaned in annoyance, and got up on her feet, ready to leave.

“Okay, wait a minute,” he said, looking at her. He had a certain charm. His auburn hair and grey eyes seemed exotic and out of place. His nose was sprinkled with freckles. He was quite popular at her school for a reason. Not only was he handsome, but he had that easygoing way about him, that invited you in. The allure was too strong, and she felt like wasting a minute on him would not be so bad.

“What?”

“Have you gone to the rooftop of the Chem lab?” he asked, cocking his head to his side.

She folded her arms across her chest. “You really think it’s a good idea to go to that haunted place?”

He blinked, his expression blank. “I didn’t suggest going there…”

She pointed a finger at him, obviously intrigued. “But you were going to, and I know why.” She pointed her thumb at the lab behind them. Usually laboratories were situating inside college buildings, but since the main lab had been burned down, they were doing their practicals in the accessory lab. He shrugged, saying, “I don’t really think that’s haunted.”

“I think it is.” She rubbed her arms, suddenly feeling cold. She did believe in ghosts. She wasn’t about to go frolicking in a haunted building just for the thrill of it.

He got up from the bench, his hands in his pockets, as he asked, “Do you really want to waste your precious time watching stars while we could see what’s actually there?”

“But why?”

“Well, for one, stars are boring.” That statement stung a bit, but she couldn’t help if he had bad taste in hobbies. Playing for the football team was obviously his only talent, for she had seen him hours on end in the field, practicing. Rain, heat, assessment exams, nothing came in between him and his stupid football, she knew this at least.

She shrugged, and walked towards the lab, with him following close behind. Once near the glass door, she turned towards him, hands on her hips. “What now?”

“Dare you look for ghosts on the rooftop,” he suggested, an eyebrow raised up.

“And you will leave my bench if I do so?” She wanted to compare her star charts today. The paper crinkled in her back pocket, and she could not study in peace until this boy stopped bothering her about her boring hobby.

“I will.” He tapped his foot on the ground, now getting impatient. Geez, what had he in his mind?

She huffed, clearly annoyed, but it was only climbing up, looking for ghosts and getting down. How hard could it be?

She spotted the fire escape ladder on the side of the gate, and breathed in, climbing up, methodically, her hands shaking and shivering, anticipation eating at her heart. She reached the rooftop, her palms on the concrete, as she pulled her body weight up using her arms. Her shoes creaked against the hard concrete. She looked over the empty drums of water, paint cans and buckets. Something did move there. She stared intently as the silence weighed in on her.

“What happened?” The boy whispered from down below, and she whispered back, “Keep quiet.”

She inched close towards the drum, as she heard a distinct scratching sound, like nails were scratching against metal. She felt her heart squeeze, the air heavy around her. There was no way she was going to encounter a ghost here. No way.

She dared to peek.

She shouted, falling back. He shouted in fear as well, and she heard him climb up the ladder. He put his hands around her shoulders as he picked her up, his breath fast and shallow.

“What are you shouting for?” she whispered, looking at him. Their breaths mingled, but she didn’t mind being in such close proximity to him. He squared up his shoulders. “I though you’d been possessed. I don’t want a lawsuit from your family in case you end up in the sanitarium.”

She shook his grip off her shoulders, taking a step back to create some distance. “You don’t need to worry about lawsuits. Your father can add another notch on his belt.”

He slapped his hand on his forehead. “Seriously, just because my father is a politician it doesn’t mean we’re a shady family.” He looked over her shoulder, almost suddenly. She heard it too. The rhythmical scratching of metal, from one of the water drums.

She glanced once at him, who seemed scared out of his wits. Drawing closer towards the drum, she took a second look.

Something meowed at her.

She burst out in laughter, her hands diving inside the drum to recover a little kitten. Her mother was nowhere to be found, neither did she seem to be in company of her litter. She brought the kitten towards her face, its eyes glowing, and she proceeded to bop its nose with hers.

“Ew,” he said, coming closer, looking at the mewling kitten. “It looks dirty.”

“She was stuck in the drum,” she was just guessing, but looking at how malnourished the kitten was, she knew it had to be true. The boy looked at the kitten, and it immediately hissed at him, completely switching from calm to ferocious. The kitten leaped from her arms, its claws drawn out, as it attacked the boy, before jumping off, disappearing behind a tree.

“Ow!” the boy shrieked, and she saw blood pour out of his scratch marks. The kitten had shown no mercy towards him. He buckled up, kneeling on the ground, as he clasped a hand around his bicep, not able to bear the pain.

“Aww, look what she did to you,” she knelt down beside him, bringing her handkerchief to wipe off the blood.

“She?” He sounded irritated. “You humanize her more than me.”

“Well if you hadn’t pissed her off, she wouldn’t have attacked you.”

He looked at her in disbelief. “What would I do to piss her off?”

“Well, you exist,” she replied. Her snarky comment managed to get a laugh out of him, as she tied the handkerchief around his arm. “There. No need to thank me, Gautam.”

His eyes lit up. “Oh, so you do know my name.”

“Don’t be so full of yourself.” She retracted her hands away from him as soon as she was done tying the cloth. “You’re awfully infamous at school.”

He pouted. “The fame is a burden to carry.”

She laughed, as the heavens opened up above them. Thunder cracked as she was back to her reality.

The wet floor of the Chem lab. Beakers and test tubes on the slabs. Four students huddled in fear of the danger outside.

The quiet girl perked up as the lightning momentarily lit everything up in a blue white glow. Nitya’s chest expanded as she felt a certain tension lift from the air. “I think it’s gone.”

Nobody could hear footsteps, but Nitya knew they were being misled. It was playing with their emotions, as it always had. Nitya reached into her back pocket, finding the star chart snug in her pocket. She knew it was a stupid habit, she knew it wasn’t going anywhere, but it calmed her down to some extent. She could almost smell the horror in the air, it settled around them like a thick fog. Her nerves were wired to be extremely sensitive. She could almost taste the rainwater outside. She could almost hear its breath quicken as the quiet girl pushed the glass door.

“No!” Nitya shouted, her legs springing in action as she saw black tendrils curl up around the girl’s ankles, as a muffled scream left her mouth. On of the tawny limbs of the creature gagged the girl’s mouth, before the vine like tendrils yanked her away from the lab, leaving everyone to gape in horror.

Nitya listened well. She could hear the girl’s screams clear against the constant hammering of the rain on the pavement. Everybody stood still until there was no sign of the dark tendrils or the quiet girl.

The basketball player went back into his curled-up position. “This is not real. This is not real.”

The boy with the cast looked on in shock at the glass door. Then, slinking back against the wall, he asked Nitya, “Why is this happening?”

Nitya felt her loud breaths rake through her chest. “I don’t know,” she replied in a quiet voice.

“I want to go home,” the basketball player sobbed.

They sat in silence, hearing for the footsteps as the creature stood outside, the rain battering its body. They could all see it, but then, it seemed to bend around the raindrops, a confusing figure to look at. It was indescribable. Things and shapes popped up from its body at regular intervals. At one moment, she saw it wield three pairs of wings, but eve before she could blink, the wings popped back inside its body, replaced by tentacles that swerved about. Looking at the figure for more than ten seconds gave her a headache.

It didn’t move from the stairs outside, and they didn’t either. Nobody bothered to get up or hide. Every time they had tried to escape the lab, it had consumed one of them. Now it didn’t matter whether they were in its field of vision or not. The one who moved was the one who died.

Nitya wanted to run back to the bench. She wanted to scream at Gautam once again, cry into his arms, laugh with him. He was stupid. She was blind. But they were in love. She could forgive him for once, but she hated her for even considering that option. Her mind went back to the safe corner of her memories, as she recounted the subsequent nights with him, sneaking out in the middle of the night to hang out with him, while he constantly berated her over her obsessive habit of staring at stars. She had started considering the bench as a second home, a place where she could forget her sorrows and punch that shitty grin off Gautam’s face.

But slowly she started realising that their late-night escapades were bringing her sleepless nights. She struggled to pay attention to her lectures. She’d always be walking around the campus like a zombie, only to find herself wired up at midnight in the excitement of meeting up with Gautam. She’d spent countless hours laughing around him, sometimes even forgetting to look at the stars, the main reason she used to come at nights to sit on the bench.

On the other hand, Gautam excelled at his studies and sports. He’d just made it to the dean’s list, getting a scholarship from the trust even though he didn’t need it. His father could pay enough to build a university with the government funds he had stolen. Although he insisted that he didn’t like his father swindling the treasury, she usually doubted it, because he never cared to tell his father to fix his ways. He was about to be kicked off from the football team this season as well, but one of their players suffered an injury, so he was placed back, and boy did he play well.

Nitya found it difficult to stay in contact with home. She didn’t know what to say to her mother. She’d been barely passing her subjects, and she didn’t have any courage to make new friends. Gautam was all she could think of. Her mother had her own problems to look after.

One night, on the bench, Nitya finally confessed, “I can’t do this anymore.”

Gautam turned towards her; his expression comical. “I told you stargazing is a stupid thing to do.”

She shook her head. “It’s about us.”

Gautam looked at her as though he didn’t understand. “What do you mean?”

Nitya clutched the ends of her shirt in a nervous gesture. “This- whatever this is. Staying up, late night, watching stars with you. I can’t do it.”

Gautam’s features hardened, as he turned away from her. “You do know that we only have the wee hours of the night to ourselves, don’t you? We do not have any subjects in common, so that means I do not get to see you in lectures. You spend your time in your stupid Science group while I slog away for my team.”

“You think my group is stupid?” she said, her voice gaining a sharp edge. “I joined it in order to be a bit more involved in my studies, idiot. With what our relationship ahs become, me obsessing over you rather than my star maps, it’s the least I could do for myself.”

Gautam stared at her wide eyed. “I can’t believe you just said that.” He paused, rubbing his eyes. “You think your stars are more important than me, right? I have no more value to you than a useless lovesick puppy who trails around you, day in, day out, right?”

He was largely mistaken, but Nitya could not convince him otherwise. “Well, that’s rich coming from you.”

“Of course.”

“Look, I don’t want to drag this further. We’ll end up fighting yet again,” Nitya said, waving her hand at him, getting up from the bench. “So long, Gautam.”

He grabbed her hand at what seemed like a millisecond, and pulled her closer. “Is that all? Don’t you want to hurl insults and accusations on me?”

“What accusations can you bear? That you cheated your way to the dean’s list?”

His eyes narrowed, as he let go of her hand. “You did not just say that.”

Nitya crossed her hands across her chest. “You did, didn’t you? You used your father’s influence to stay on the dean’s list. How else would you make the cut? I didn’t, and I was the one who got into the college riding on full scholarship.”

“Well if you want the scholarship so much,” he interjected, his voice laced with poison, “Why don’t you ask your father to push you further as my father did?”

The ground slipped from beneath her feet, but she stood still. “I can’t.” She stared at him, teary eyed. “Because he died, Gautam. He died even before I met you.”

Her mind was distracted by the loud sound outside. The rain had no intentions of ceasing any sooner. She shrunk back further into her corner, as the basketball player finally shouted at them. “You’re all just waiting to die while we know what that thing wants!”

Nitya rocked her body in a desperate attempt to stay undisturbed. “It’s no use to fight against it.”

The boy sobbed as he shivered with the cold, his jacket already with the rain. Then, almost as if he had snapped, he looked up, his eyes full of undying hope. “Do you guys hear that?”

Nitya strained herself to hear for any sign, but apart from the rain, she heard nothing. “No.” She looked at the boy with the cast. “Do you hear anything?” The boy shook his head. She turned her head towards the shivering boy, but he was already up and running. He was shouting something, but it did not register in her brain until he had reached the glass door. “They have called the police! The sirens are loud…”

But as soon as he pushed the door, a tendril shot towards him, splicing his head off.

Nitya screamed hard. Her cries of horror died in the pounding rain, but it resounded well in the lab, as the boy with the cast rejoined her as well. The basketball player’s head rolled towards them, as his body fell backwards. Tiny tendrils caught his rolling head and his ankles, dragging them outside, as the monster fed on him voraciously. Nitya couldn’t bear the guttural sounds that escaped the creature, and she waited till it had had its meal. The sound of bone crunching beneath its teeth, wet flesh slipping into its throat.

The boy with the cast settled back, closing his eyes. She saw no more excuses as her eyes shut on their own accord, her body drifting to sleep.

Her dream was vivid, just as her memory had been.

She had decided to let go of her ego to work on her relationship with Gautam. She found him hard to let go. It was apparently costing him as well, as he had gotten in trouble lately. He had gotten into a raging fist fight with a boy who claimed that Gautam had cheated his way to his position on the dean’s list. As claimed by everyone else. Soon, she had seen him fall from his high pedestal. The football team kicked him out for his behaviour with his teammates. Amidst the rumors, he withdrew his name from the scholarship, allowing the quiet girl, whom Nitya now knew as the Chemistry professor’s daughter, to regain her scholarship.

But as his influence dropped, so did the bodies.

The rumors of him cheating and his tiffs with other students died down, as people became engrossed with other, much more important issues. Recently, there had been a string of murders in the college. Almost six kids and four teachers dropped dead, another three students went missing. An FIR was filed and police was involved, for the people on the campus kept dropping dead like flies.

Nitya’s mother had finally been admitted to a sanatorium. Nitya could no longer contact her, but there wasn’t much to talk to her either. Ever since her father died, Nitya and her mother had grown apart. Her mother had been diagnosed with bipolar, albeit it was mild at the time Nitya left for her college. Her brother was taking good care of her, and since both the siblings hated each other, as both of them held each other responsible for their father’s death, there was little left for Nitya to go back home to. Shadows of depression hung over the family, and Nitya didn’t want to go around, waking ghosts of her past yet again. She wanted to make amends with Gautam, and no amount of instinct holding her back worked. He had been in a bad shape, as she had been.

She decided upon his birthday that she will go up to him and perhaps ask him to hang out. She maybe didn’t want him as anything more than friends, but with the shadow of death looming large over the college, she wanted to find comfort in somebody, and nobody else had gotten to know her as well as Gautam had.

She looked around the college building but had caught no sign of him. Until she narrowed the Chemistry professor’s office, seeing him hunched over the teacher’s desk through the window, while they appeared to heatedly argue over something. Gautam was furious over something, and the teacher continually shook his head. There was no reason to wait here, so she turned around to go back to her hostel. Maybe she could wish him later in the night while he went on his midnight strolls…

It all happened in an instant. The teacher stood up, imposing over Gautam, before something shot from Gautam’s body, inserted into the professor’s chest. She looked on in wide eyed horror as the body of her Chemistry professor slumped back into his chair.

She clamped a hand on her mouth, biting down on her scream.

But it was too late, for he had turned around to catch her. She had caught him murder a professor.

As she ran through the building, pushing through the crowd of students in the halls, numerous things fell into place. Rumors surrounding him had died down only because he had killed the students spreading them around. The three teachers who had opposed him continuing his studies after he had requested to step down from the scholarship had been killed.

She knew the other who were going to be targeted by him next. The basketball player who had called him out in the first place. The footballer who had claimed he was injured because of Gautam during practice. The girl who had taken his place in the dean’s list. And finally, the girl who had started it all. Nitya.

She woke up to the sound of the boy with the cast shouting for help, before his cries were muffled. She sobbed as she stood up, the back of her hand wiping away her tears, as she saw the incomprehensible figure of what had once been Gautam chomp down on the boy’s leg. It now resembled a blob of something that bent time and space around it. It was something unearthly. It wasn’t supposed to exist.

The blob watched her intently, as she threw open the glass door, the rain pattering down on both of them. She remembered how he had pleaded her to stay when he caught her warning the people on his hit list. He blubbered and fell at her feet, saying something about the cult his father ran, the demon they worshipped. How that demon demanded human sacrifices of his enemies, how his father was untouchable because of him, and soon, he will be too.

But Nitya refused to listen, and all of them had made a run for the Chem lab. The lights went out because of the storm that approached them. The demon had already started influencing their minds shortly after. They had seen their loved ones call them out from the glass, only for them to be an illusion. They had heard people they knew, and people they didn’t, call out their names. They felt compelled to walk right into the glass gate under the demonic influence. Their minds were screwed with for hours, and somehow, they kept each other sane, while they waited for the storm to stop and light to turn back up, so that help could come their way. But the rain kept pouring down, and Gautam kept losing part of his sanity, his humanity, till he morphed into something entirely different. Something that no longer could be called Gautam anymore.

She walked towards the demon, her knees buckling up as she lost her balance. A tendril curled up under her chin, tipping her head forward. His voice seemed distorted, but it was him alright. She couldn’t see it clearly, for her human mind could not comprehend the infinity before her. The voice scratched, but it said in a desperate tone, “I’m sorry.”

Nitya smiled, and said, “Happy birthday, Gautam.”

She felt a blinding pain in her heart as the tendril shot up into her torso.

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's style of writing existential and cosmic horror. Often in Lovecraft's stories, we find a cosmic entity beyond our level of understanding, but I wanted to flesh out a creature grounded in our own reality. I also wanted to see if the existence of a previous relationship with the monster had any impact on the horror.


End file.
